An incidental pleasure attached to last week’s first annual “ Brave New Work ” symposium and exhibition was the rare chance to actually enter and hang out in the erstwhile mysterious and historic Masonic Temple on Carillo Street. Access to the century-old building, housing Lodge #192 of the chapter of the 300-plus-year-old organization, has long been limited to members and insiders, but began opening its doors to public events and visitors this year.
It might have seemed an odd fellowship and juxtaposition to host the cutting-edge symposium — exploring and showcasing the merger of art and AI and other new tech-related topics — in this space where many of the interior features have a time-stood-still ambience, but all was well when the event held three of its panel discussions in the Masonic ballroom. The seminar, organized by entrepreneur Michael Delgado, with logistical help from the Independent and other entities, was a moveable feast, touching base at UCSB, SBMA, MCASB, CAW, SBHS, Sullivan Goss, and SBCAST (whose founder Alan Macy led an artist’s panel), and a culminating, public-invited video exhibition projected on the walls around the Central Library’s Michael Towbes Plaza.
But it all began in the Masonic’s inviting ballroom space. Less than a block away from the Mason’s HQ is another large building — the temple of Jeff Bezos — where much of the work behind the famed robotic helper-companion Alexa takes place. Kevin Davis, the de facto team leader, and who Delgado dubbed the “Grand Poobah” of Alexa, only had to walk three minutes to join the first panel discussion, along with another prominent high-tech force with a Santa Barbara footprint, Google’s Quantum Lab. From that Goleta industrial area outpost, whose artist-in-residence Forest Stearns was in-house at the Temple.